El cuatrero errante

Plot-- Mysterious Kid Wichita arrives to help two brothers Tom and Jeff defend their ranch from cattle rustlers. Trouble is the Kid creates more problems than he solves. So why does straight arrow Tom put up with him.

Anyone doubting that Texas has a scenic part needs to see this Western. The Palo Dura Canyon in the Texas panhandle looks like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon of Arizona and makes an eye-catching backdrop. In fact, the movie skillfully weaves the action into the red rock slabs, especially the big shoot-out, bull whip and all.

There're a lot of cross currents to the plot, making the story sometimes difficult to follow, but the central characters—Preston and Sterling—remain clearly drawn. The script only fills in important information in dribs and drabs, which means we have to keep up with why some people are doing what they do as best we can. Thus some patience is needed, but I think it does pay off.

Preston is obviously enjoying his charming bad-guy role, playing it for all it's worth. His Kid Wichita may be one of the biggest, most booming, personalities in Western annals and probably the only singing villain. Wisely, his opposite number, Sterling, underplays his part as Tom, the reluctant good guy. This makes for a good dramatic contrast and helps build tension for the inevitable showdown. Apparently, Jack Elam helped get financing for the film (IMDB) and so got his first acting part. He sounds a little shaky, but then his cuckolded husband, Earl, is supposed to be. And, of course, there's Chill Wills lending his reliable "aw- shucks" brand of character color.

Anyway, there's a lot of entertainment in both the scenery and the characters, making this a generally under-rated little Western.

This is a decent Western that has a couple of fine performances by Robert Preston,who makes a great bad-guy, as "Kid Wichita" and Cathy Downs,veteran of numerous Westerns,Film-noirs and Comedies,as "Kathleen Boyce".The Technicolor and the great editing are a plus,and there's also a well-done shoot-out in a canyon.This is a B-Western that's definitely worth a look.

Peaceful rancher Robert Sterling is on the losing side of a range war with his ruthless neighbors, that is until notorious outlaw Robert Preston shows up out of the blue to level the playing field. Soon he begins to go too far, feeding a growing sense of unease in Sterling, especially when his son begins to idolize the wily criminal.

The Sundowners is a tightly-paced, gritty, and surprisingly tough little picture with a great performance by Preston. Here, he comes across as an evil version of Shane, that is until the real nature of the rancher and the outlaw's relationship is revealed. Most movie guides and video boxes spoil the surprise!

Rounding out the cast is Chill Wills, Jack Elam, and the debut of John Drew Barrymore, who became more famous for his offspring than his acting.

It's entirely possible that the VHS that I watched of this film was badly edited because the film seemed to begin in the middle.

The Cloud Brothers, Robert Sterling and John Drew Barrymore, have settled in some country where there's a nice range war in progress. They've got both big cattle baron John Litel and a group of smaller ranchers against them. All they want to do is be left alone, but neither group will allow that.

A third brother, Robert Preston, arrives on the scene. He's a noted outlaw named Kid Wichita and he really ratchets up the violence quotient. That also includes killing the sheriff who is Litel's son and Jack Elam who's married to Cathy Downs who he's taking a fancy to.

This is a nice cast and John Drew Barrymore certainly showed he had the potential to be an earlier version of James Dean. The heritage of that name proved too much for that man though.

One of the more ambitious undertakings from Eagle-Lion Studios. But The Sundowners was flawed in the execution.

The Robert Mitchum/Deborah Kerr Sundowners was far better.

This was an exceptional western in it's day. Filmed on location, in Technicolor no less, with top B-list stars Robert Sterling, the bland good-guy type and Robert Preston, the evil bad-man brother with good support by Cathy Downs, John Barrymore Jr., Chill Wills, John Litel among others including Jack Elam. After viewing this again after a long while, it's obvious that the more "adult" aspects of the story were eliminated or toned down so drastically that the drama was just too tame by todays' standards, but they had the "Code" in those days. It also appears as if the studio (Eagle-Lion)may have also edited some scenes down to fit a particular running time (approx. 83 minutes). It makes no sense to spend the money they did on this film and then cut it to it's running time. If this film had a couple of the Alan Bates, Susannha York, John Hurt scenes from "The Shout" written into this "re-make" it would be more explosive and make more sense. I would also explore and expand the strong-willed father, weak son sheriff sub-plot a little more. Yes it's watchable still as is, but when we bring back the Western some day, let's re-make this one early on.